18 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



provinces. But neither those two leaders nor their distinguished com- 

 peers, James Boyle Uniacke, William Young, John Hamilton Gray and 

 Charles Fisher — all names familiar to students of Nova Scotia and New 

 Brunswick history — surpassed Mr. Wilmot in that magnetic eloquence 

 which carries an audience off its feet, in versatility of knowledge, in 

 humorous sarcasm, and in conversational gifts which made him a most 

 interesting personality in social life. He impressed his strong individu- 

 ality upon his countrymen until the latest hours of his useful career. 



" A life in civic action warm ; 

 A soul on highest mission sent ; 

 A potent voice in parliament ; 

 A pillar steadfast in the storm." 



YII. 



The results of the development of Canada since 1841 raay be 

 divided, for the purposes of this review, into the following phases : 



Territorial Expansion. 



Increase of Population and Wealth. 



Political Development. 



Social and Intellectual Progress. 



National Unity. 



VIII. 



From 1841 to 1867 the provinces of British North America remained 

 isolated from each other as distinct political entities, only united by the 

 tie of a common allegiance to one Sovereign. Their political organiza- 

 tion was confined to the country extending from the head of Lake 

 Superior to the countries watered by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the 

 Atlantic Ocean. Of these provinces Ontario was the most populous and 

 the richest in agricultural wealth, although it has not as great an area as 

 the province of Quebec, where a more rigorous climate and large 

 mountainous tracts — the hills of the Laurentides — have rendered the 

 country less favourable for extensive and productive farming operations. 

 A very considerable portion of Ontario, even in those days, was a wilder- 

 ness, and the principal cultivated tracts extended for a few miles from 

 the St. Lawrence, and the most populous settlements lay between Lakes 

 Ontario, Erie, and, Huron. The confederation of 1867 brought four 

 provinces into one territorial organization for genei'al or Dominion pur- 

 poses : Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick — and it was 

 not until 1873 that little Prince Edward Island, the garden of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, united its political fortunes with those of the young 



